Lytle named CCAC Freshman of the Year; joins Sanders on all-CCAC team
Amara Lytle was named the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year as the league announced its postseason women's golf awards. She was the lone freshman named to the five-player first team all-conference team. Teammate Maitlyn Sanders was selected second team all-CCAC.
Lytle, from Cedar Falls, Iowa, posted the second-best scoring average on the team, an 84.47 over 17 total rounds, covering 10 tournaments. She played her best golf down the stretch, earning a top-five finish in each of the Bees' final four tournaments of the year. She collected a total of five top-10 finishes.
Lytle took fourth at the Upper Iowa Spring Invitational on Apr. 3, and followed that six days later with a third-place effort to help St. Ambrose win its own Fighting Bee Invitational. She placed fifth at the CCAC Championships to earn all-tournament team honors with back-to-back 81s on Apr. 21-22. Lytle closed the spring with her best finish, winning the 63-player Viking Invitational on Apr. 30-May 1 with a 9-over 153 (79-74). Her final-round 74 was the team's low round of the year.
She is the first SAU women's golfer to earn first team all-CCAC recognition since St. Ambrose joined the conference in 2015-16.
Sanders had the top scoring average on the team, averaging an 82.35 over her 17 rounds. The Galesburg, Ill., native had a consistently-strong senior season, recording nine top-10 finishes over 10 tournaments. That included four top-five efforts.
Sanders collected two third-place finishes - after shooting a 78 at the Quad-City Cup on Sept. 1 and after firing a 164 (81-83) at the Klocke Family Classic Sept. 11-12. She carded a team-best four rounds in the 70s.
This marks the first time two Bees have been named to an all-conference women's golf team since Caiti Childers and Kelly Jansen earned all-Midwest Collegiate Conference honors in 2009.